St Hilda's Representing New Zealand for Touch

Last weekend, 7 past and present SHCS students represented New Zealand at the Youth Asia Pacific Cup in Australia. Current students Demi McAlwee, Brooke Duncan and Sophia Tutty played for the NZ U18 as did former student Luana Ashton. Gemma Rowcroft, Brooke McAlwee and Jaymee Meffan were members of the NZ U20 team. An amazing opportunity for these dedicated wahine.

The experience from Brooke Duncan....

Leading up to the Trans Tasman, we had two training camps that were held in Auckland. The camps consisted of fitness testing, game plans, and tournaments with the other New Zealand teams. We also learned the haka!

After our final camp, we were given a fitness program by a strength and conditioning coach to stick to up until Australia. The program allowed us to have a routine to follow and to set short term goals that we wanted to accomplish by the end of the four weeks. After each session, we had to upload a photo of us post workout, not my best sight! But it was a good way to hold each other accountable and provide motivation to keep working.

Finally, last Tuesday we headed across the ditch! I was quite nervous heading away. For Soph, Demi and I, we had never been exposed to the high performance environment before, and had heard so much about how strong the Australian competition was, with Touch being their most played sport. However, I was also excited to finally put our work out there and hopefully see it all come together.

We had two days of training before the tournament began on Friday. Day One saw us taking a win over Singapore and a loss to Australia. Day Two, winning over Singapore again and the Cook Islands, which left us a spot in the final against Australia on Day Three. Getting to sing the national anthem and being televised on Sky Sport with family and friends all watching was a special experience. Unfortunately Aussie took the upper hand, earning a well deserved first place overall. Despite the loss, I think we all were just excited to be out there.

Overall, I am very grateful to have been apart of the team and had a awesome experience! Getting to know a variety of girls, all with different backgrounds from throughout New Zealand, was quite an eye opening yet unreal experience. I walked away from the campaign with more knowledge of what high performance sport looks like, life long friendships and more appreciation for what I have around me. On behalf of Demi, Soph and I, we want to thank you for all of your support!